Chapter 173: Battle Against Rita, Sister Rita Suffers Another Setback
"Rovel is sick and has been feeling unwell lately, so..." Himeko stepped forward, her voice carrying a protective edge as she reminded the Schicksal maid of the situation. She assumed the other woman simply lacked the proper context.
"I have already heard about Classmate Rovel being unwell," Rita replied. She bowed slightly, the dark fabric of her maid skirt rippling in a flawless, elegant arc.
"However, everyone in Schicksal admires Classmate Rovel's feat of slaying the Judgment-class Honkai Beast Chiyou in Shenzhou. Such sharpness and courage have long made me yearn to witness it for myself. I wonder if Classmate Rovel could fulfill this small wish of mine?"
Her tone remained gentle, wrapped in layers of perfect respect. She lightly pressed a pale fingertip to the corner of her lips, her purple eyes shining with what appeared to be genuine expectation. The suffocating, razor-sharp aura of an S-Rank Valkyrie was completely retracted. In this moment, Rita looked like nothing more than an ordinary young girl gazing up at her idol.
"Slaying a Judgment-class Honkai Beast?!"
"Yearning to see it?!"
A wave of hushed gasps and frantic whispers swept through the gathered crowd. The shock at the first revelation rippled outward because many of the students had been kept in the dark; they only knew that major events had recently transpired in Shenzhou, paying little attention to the classified details.
The shock at the second statement stemmed entirely from Rita's terrifying status. She was an S-Rank Valkyrie. To elicit such open admiration from a warrior at the absolute pinnacle of humanity, just how monstrously outstanding did a person have to be?
Mei stood quietly near the edge of the stage, her dark eyes fixed on Rita. She watched the maid's flawless posture and polite smile, easily sensing that those sweet words were merely calculated formalities rather than any true, burning admiration for Rovel. It was a stark contrast to Himeko, who was currently staring at Rovel with an undisguised, ravenous hunger.
Rovel silently called up his system interface, glancing at his prestige points.
[St. Freya Academy: 1322 points]
Just that single, polite sentence from Rita had caused his prestige points to spike by nearly one hundred and fifty. Back when Otto had officially named him a B-Rank Schicksal Knight, his points had finally broken past the one thousand mark. Since that day, the numbers had trickled in at a painfully slow rate. Yet now, a casual compliment from Rita had caused a massive surge.
S-Rank Valkyries truly were the ultimate cheat codes for farming prestige among the lower ranks.
"Since Miss Rita has put it that way, it would be terribly cold of me to refuse. Let's just keep it to a friendly spar, shall we?" Rovel stood up, rolling his shoulders to loosen his stiff muscles, and nodded his agreement.
He knew Otto already had a decent read on his capabilities. There was no longer any strategic value in hiding his fangs right under the Overseer's nose. He might as well seize the opportunity to stockpile prestige points. It was always better to prepare for the future; for all he knew, the system's Level 80 breakthrough mission might demand two or three thousand points to clear. Level 80 was still a distant milestone, but hoarding resources early never hurt anyone.
"Mr. Rovel..."
"Rovel..."
The few girls who actually knew the extent of his current physical weakness stepped forward, their faces tight with concern as they tried to talk him out of it.
"Don't worry, I trust Miss Rita's character. She wouldn't be too rough on a sick man, right?" Rovel offered them a reassuring smile before shifting his gaze back to the maid.
"Of course. This is purely a martial arts exchange. We will stop the moment a point is made," Rita agreed, dipping her head in a graceful nod.
Rovel stepped onto the reinforced floor of the arena, his hand falling to the hilt of his Prototype Pulse Katana. He drew the blade, the metallic ring echoing clearly in the open space.
Rita mirrored his readiness. She produced a palm-sized cylindrical object from her uniform. With a gentle press of her thumb, the metal expanded and locked into place, transforming into a massive, wicked scythe.
Himeko stood rigidly at the edge of the stage, her muscles coiled like springs, fully prepared to intervene and drag Rovel out of the danger zone at a moment's notice. She did not believe he had even a fraction of a chance against Rita.
Rovel's martial arts were undeniably exceptional, far surpassing the combat techniques of most A-Rank Valkyries. However, the woman standing opposite him was an S-Rank monster. Himeko did not know the true depths of Rita's destructive power. The only absolute truth she knew was that an S-Rank Valkyrie possessed the raw strength to slaughter an Emperor-class Honkai Beast single-handedly, and the endurance to hold the line against a Judgment-class disaster.
, Rita's combat style leaned heavily into assassination and the swift eradication of smaller, agile targets. She was a lethal, precision-based warrior, much like Mei.
Rita held her ground, her scythe resting casually at her side as she waited for Rovel to make the opening move. Rovel did not waste time hesitating. Given his current weakened speed, Rita's kinetic vision would easily track his trajectory no matter what angle he chose.
"Hokushin Itto-ryu: Battojutsu."
Rovel vanished. The air cracked as he reappeared directly in front of Rita, bringing the katana down in a brutal, blinding arc.
Metal shrieked against metal. A shower of golden sparks illuminated the arena as the katana bit into the dark shaft of the giant scythe. Rita absorbed the heavy impact without a single shift in her posture, her expression entirely relaxed. She made no move to counter, merely observing the weight and angle of his strike. She wanted to measure the exact limits of his swordsmanship.
"True Shadow Flash: First Form."
Rovel's figure splintered. Three identical shadows materialized, converging on Rita from blind angles. The maid finally moved. Her massive scythe swept through the air in a dark crescent, cleanly shattering two of the advancing phantoms into dissipating mist in the blink of an eye.
"True Shadow Flash: Second Form."
The scattered mist violently snapped back together. The shadows miraculously reformed, accelerating to an impossible speed and plunging their blades straight through Rita's chest.
No blood spilled. The scythe-wielding figure rippled and faded into nothingness. It was merely an afterimage left behind by a burst of terrifying speed.
The real Rita had already leapt high into the air. Her purple eyes flickered with genuine surprise. The layered trap was slightly beyond her initial expectations. It was a flawless first-encounter kill technique. Most opponents would naturally drop their guard the moment they destroyed the initial shadows, leaving them wide open for the true killing blow hidden within the Second Form. If she had not detected the subtle shift in the arena's airflow, the blade might have actually grazed her.
"Hokushin Itto-ryu: Ultimate Technique - Moonlit Shadow Dance!"
Rovel's body dissolved into a blur of high-speed shadows, completely indistinguishable to the naked eye. He launched himself upward, rushing toward Rita's airborne form to deliver a relentless barrage of strikes.
Despite having absolutely no use or foothold in the empty air, Rita twisted her waist. She swung the heavy scythe with terrifying precision, parrying every single incoming strike with effortless grace.
The crowd below erupted into hushed murmurs of awe. To perfectly defend against a high-speed aerial assault without a center of gravity was a feat bordering on the impossible.
Gravity reclaimed them, and the two warriors landed lightly on the arena floor, immediately creating distance between themselves. Rita gave her giant scythe a casual, spinning flourish.
She analyzed the brief exchange in her mind. It was incredibly impressive. This was a swordsmanship style forged entirely in the fires of life-and-death combat; every single posture and transition was designed to execute a killing blow. Starting with the explosive Battojutsu, transitioning into the shadow misdirection, and resulting in a decisive aerial strike. An ordinary fighter would have been torn to shreds within the first three seconds.
Hokushin Itto-ryu was built upon these lethal, first-encounter techniques. If their baseline physical parameters were not so vastly different, Rita calculated that she genuinely might have sustained an injury.
"You truly live up to your reputation, Classmate Rovel. Such exquisite swordsmanship is truly admirable," Rita praised softly, her voice carrying across the silent arena. "Now, I shall begin my attack as well. Please be careful."
With those polite words, Rita dashed forward. She deliberately throttled her speed, keeping her movements roughly on par with Rovel's current, weakened state.
As she swung her giant scythe, her movements were as captivating and deadly as an Umbral Rose blooming across a blood-soaked battlefield. Yet, beneath that elegant composure lay a suffocating, crushing pressure. Her posture remained flawless, but the arcs of her scythe were broad, heavy, and devastating. Even with her strength heavily suppressed, the sheer kinetic force behind the massive weapon carried a ferocity that threatened to pulverize anything in its path.
Rovel immediately activated his Clear Mirror Sword Intent, his perception expanding to track the incoming onslaught. Even with the enhanced focus, he could only barely deflect and redirect Rita's heavy blows, his boots sliding backward across the floor with every clash.
In the next fraction of a second, Rita abruptly released her grip. She threw the giant scythe directly at Rovel, the massive blade spinning toward his head like a dark buzzsaw.
"True Shadow Flash: First Form."
Rovel had no time to physically duck or parry. He triggered the technique, his body dissolving into shadows to instantly vacate his position just as the spinning blade cleaved through the empty air.
"Caught you."
A soft whisper brushed against his ear. Without him even registering the movement, Rita had already materialized directly behind him. She caught the returning scythe, the curved blade gleaming with a cold, lethal light as she brought it down toward his shoulder.
From his current twisted angle, Rovel could not bring his katana up to block.
He knew his disadvantage perfectly well. Instead of panicking, his body contorted into an unnatural posture. He violently thrust his calf backward while simultaneously driving his elbow up, catching the thick handle of Rita's scythe between his limbs in a desperate grappling lock. The kinetic force of the strike was halted inches from his skin.
With her weapon temporarily jammed, Rita immediately released the tension and gracefully retreated, putting several meters between them.
"I didn't expect Classmate Rovel's close-quarters combat abilities to be so formidable as well. To instantly abandon the katana and use grappling techniques to defend in such a dire situation?" Rita offered another soft compliment, her eyes gleaming with approval at his rich combat experience.
Rovel exhaled a long, heavy breath of turbid air. His chest heaved. The continuous, high-speed exchange of attacks and defenses had rapidly drained his already compromised stamina. His lungs burned, and a dull ache throbbed in his temples. He simply did not have the spare energy to offer Rita a witty reply.
Just as Himeko shifted her weight, heavily debating whether to call the match and step in, Rita blurred into motion once more.
She charged forward, her body flickering rapidly across the arena. Afterimages bloomed in the air and on the ground, surrounding Rovel from every conceivable angle. She sealed off every escape route, her presence overwhelming the senses.
Himeko cursed under her breath and lunged forward, but the distance was too great. She was a second too late.
The scythe in Rita's hands transformed into a high-speed, rotating tornado of dark steel, slashing inward to swallow Rovel whole.
A blinding flash of pure white light erupted from Rovel's blade, cutting through the dark storm.
The screeching winds died instantly. The terrifying momentum of the inescapable attack came to a dead, unnatural halt.
A single drop of cold sweat slowly slid down Rita's temple, tracing a path along her jawline.
"Let's end it here."
Rovel stood perfectly still. He slowly withdrew his bare palm, which was currently pressed gently, yet firmly, against the delicate skin of Rita's throat.
Himeko froze mid-step, her boots skidding against the floor. She stared at the scene, utterly stunned. The invincible S-Rank Valkyrie had actually lost.
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